In Heart and Soul
by Princessstarryknight
Summary: Soul and Maka are growing up and continue on with their daily lives working together as partners but they soon start to realize that they're in love with each other, but neither one of them dares make a move, both of them worried that the other one doesn't feel the same and risk their partnership. Will they give in to love and let their feelings for each other be known?
1. Changes

Life in Death City had never been better. The students had been thriving and growing stronger, protecting the world from the evil of the Kishin. And from their success, a new stronger sense of morale brought peace and happiness amongst the people in Death City. The students were much happier, and as a result so were the adults. Small businesses thrived once again with people now feeling safer going out at night. A new night-life emerged, spreading happiness during the night and continuing into the day.

"It's amazing how noisy it's been at night lately." Maka notes as she looks out the kitchen window, looking at all the lights on and people and cars in the streets. "It's going to be hard to get sleep if things keep up like this."

"Like you ever sleep anyway." Soul notes.

Maka turns to see her partner at the kitchen table with a spoon shoved into a tub of vanilla chocolate chip ice cream and he pulled it out and ate a whole spoonful.

"You already stay up until three in the morning reading. The only difference now is that you have some extra reading light." He says and points his spoon to the window before digging into the tub again.

Maka giggled at her partner and smiled at him.

"Well it's not like you ever sleep much either." Maka reminds him and moves towards the table. "Eating all of that sugar before bed and playing video games. You're up until three in the morning too."

"Hey, pointing out my flaws to feel better about your own's not cool." Soul reminds her and licks his spoon clean before putting another spoon in the tub and pushing it towards Maka in offering.

She smiled at him and sat down on the chair across from him. She took the spoon and started eating the ice cream too.

"How about sharing them with your partner?" Maka asks him.

"Now that is cool." Soul replies and eats another spoonful.

Maka giggles and eats one too.

"You know what I think is really cool?" Maka asks and Soul looks up at her, silently asking her to continue. "How all the hard work we've done together is the reason why all of this is happening." She says and looks outside. "Because of us and the other students people are safe and happy and their lives are so much better."

"And that's all thanks to you." Soul says.

"It's not just because of me." Maka says. "There's the other students at the academy. They've all worked really hard."

"Yeah but you're the best meister." Soul says.

"I can only be a good meister because I have an amazing weapon." Maka tells him honestly. "An amazingly cool weapon." Soul laughed and looked away from her, smiling. "So cool." She says and pokes his cheek with her spoon full of ice cream.

"You know that's not very cool." He tells her.

"Really?" Maka asks. "But ice cream is cold. I thought it would be very cool." Soul laughed and turned to her again.

She poked his mouth with the spoon and he smiled at her.

"Come on now." She coos. "Be a good boy and open up."

He smirks at her and opens his mouth for her to put the spoon inside. He closed his mouth around it and ate off the ice cream. Maka pulls it back out of his mouth. He smirks at her and swallows.

"I was wrong." He says and she tilts her head in confusion. "It is pretty cool." She laughs.

He picks up his spoon and spoons up some ice cream and then pokes her mouth with the spoon. She smiles at him and giggles. She had a look in her eyes. Soul's cool facade faltered a bit. He had never seen that look before. It was making his heart rate increase. He felt himself blushing as she opened up her mouth and closed it around the spoon. She pulled her mouth back and the ice cream was gone. She swallowed and smiled at him.

"Yeah it is." Maka says and smiles at him.

"Wow." Soul breathes.

"What is it?" Maka asks.

"You..." Soul says and smiles at her. "Just now when you looked at me...it was different."

"I looked at you differently?" Maka asks him.

"Yeah." Soul says and smiles a bit. "Something in your eyes, they look brighter. Why?"

"I don't know." Maka says. "Maybe it has something to do with me getting older." She says and gets up and puts her spoon in the sink.

"Ah. How could I forget." Soul says. "Your birthday's in a few days. You're going to be fifteen."

"Same age as you." Maka tells him.

"Only for a few months." Soul chuckles. "Don't get too used to it." He gets up and puts away his spoon too.

He looked down at Maka. He couldn't help but stare. There was definitely something different about her. He couldn't put his finger on it but she looked different. He liked it. He liked looking at her. It made his chest warm. When she smiled at him, it was like a spark went off in his heart.

"What are you looking at me for silly?" She asks him.

"Nothing." Soul tells her and messes up her hair with his hand. She giggles and moves his hand away. "Just messing with you."

"Okay well go to bed. We've got school tomorrow." She reminds him then gently hugs him.

He hugged her back and rubbed his hand on her back softly. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and rested his cheek on her head. He held her softly, just like he always had. But now he felt like he was holding her a slightly different way. He didn't want to let go. But she started to pull away. She smiled at him.

"Goodnight Soul." She says and then goes to her room.

"Goodnight Maka." He says and smiles at her as she closes her bedroom door.

"What was that all about?" He asks himself and puts away the ice cream. "There's definitely something different about her." He declares and turns around to go to bed.

"Hey there cutie." Blair says, wearing nothing but a towel.

"Ugh. Seriously Blair! This is getting really old!" Soul exclaims. She tilts her head in confusion.

"What are you talking about? I thought you loved seeing me naked. You always get those cute little nosebleeds when you do." Blair reminds him and drops her towel.

Soul blushed and looked her over. But then he looked back up at her face and shook his head.

"Just put something on Blair." He says and picks up the towel and gives it back to her before going into his room.

"Hm..." Blair says. "Something is definitely different around here...I'd better find out what's going on!"

The next day during school Soul walked to the balcony with Black Star to have lunch together. As they walked a bunch of girls stared at Soul and blushed, giggling amongst themselves. He chuckled a bit and smiled at them, causing them to squeal and run off to gossip to more of their friends. Soul just shook his head.

"So uncool." He comments.

"Yeah I'll say." Black Star says with a frown. "Your new popularity since you became a Death Scythe has gotten more people paying attention to you than me!" He crosses his arms and pouts. "Quit stealing my spotlight!" He roars and Soul flinches.

"Calm down Black Star. It's not like I'm doing this intentionally." Soul explains. "Honestly sometimes I wish things could go back to the way they were before, when all of us could just hang out and not have to hide from fans and stuff."

"Yeah I can see how that would be annoying to you guys." Black Star says. "But since I've been a celebrity for my entire life I'm used to this stuff!" He brags.

"Yeah. I knew this fame wouldn't go to your head." Soul says sarcastically. "But it's been hard for me and Maka lately. There's been all these girls sending me love letters and requests to be their partner and honestly I don't like any of it. And even though she doesn't say it I can see it makes Maka upset too and that makes me hate it even more. It's one thing to annoy me with love letters and partner requests. I'm a cool guy I can ignore that stuff. But if it makes Maka upset then that is completely unacceptable in my book."

"Wow. You should try to do something about it then." Black Star tells him.

"Yeah I am." Soul says. "Why do you think I'm throwing Maka a huge surprise birthday party?" Soul whispers into Black Star's ear.

"Ohh so that's why you wanted to have lunch just the two of us!" Black Star realizes.

"Well the two of us and Kid." Soul says and points to him walking over.

"Why is he a part of party planning?" Black Star asks.

"Well first of all because I am friends with all of you and I want to help give Maka the best fifteenth birthday party ever." Kid explains. "And secondly I'm providing the funds for the venue and thirdly I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to decorate a perfectly symmetrical room!" He dreamily exclaims. "Oh I've designed everything perfectly! There's going to be eight flower pots on each side of the room-"

"Why not fifteen?" Black Star asks. "She's turning fifteen so why not have fifteen flower pots on each-"

"It's an odd number!" Kid shouts at him. "Why can't she be turning an even number or a more symmetrical number like-"

"We get it." Soul interrupts. "What time will everything be set up?"

"Everything should be set to start at 8:00 on the night of Maka's birthday." Kid says.

"I'm going to get the cake." Black Star says. "I've designed it myself. What do you think?" He asks Soul and shows him a picture he drew of the cake.

"Uh Black Star, this is just a sculpture of you made out of cake." Soul tells him.

"Yeah! It's the perfect cake for the star of the party." Black Star says. Soul sighs.

"Listen, Black Star do you think you could maybe..." Soul tries to choose his words carefully. "Back off a bit and let Maka have the spotlight for this party..."

"Why?" Black Star asks. "She's nowhere near as big of a star as me."

"Yeah but it's her birthday." Soul reminds him. "And she's been really busy lately and we've both been under a lot of stress and I just want this party to be special for her, show her how important she is to everyone and make her happy you know."

Black Star and Kid looked at each other and smirked.

"What?" Soul asked.

"It's nothing don't worry about it." Kid assures him.

"What do you mean? What's going on?" Soul asks.

"It's nothing, honestly." Black Star says then starts to laugh a bit.

"You're a terrible liar." Kid says and sighs.

"Okay guys what's going on?" Soul asks. "Keeping secrets isn't cool you know."

"Soul...You've been acting differently lately. Especially around Maka lately." Kid says.

"Different how?" Soul asks.

"You know..." Kid says. "You've been staring at her a lot and the two of you have been getting seemingly closer..."

"Yeah we've known each other for awhile now." Soul says simply. "We're just really close now that's all."

They all hear some girls laughing and look down to see who was there. They see Maka, Tsubaki, Liz and Patty all eating lunch below them. Soul smiled at Maka. She looked so happy eating her sandwich. He couldn't help but notice how the sun shone on her ash blonde hair and lit up her face. Her emerald eyes were shining. How had he never noticed that before? He's brought back to reality when Kid snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"Hm? Did you need something Kid?" He asks. Kid just smirks at him. "What?"

"You think Maka's pretty don't you!" Black Star accuses.

Soul's eyes widened.

"What!?" He exclaims. "Where the hell would you get that crazy idea!"

"It's quite obvious actually." Kid tells him. "It explains all the staring and why you blush around her sometimes. Just accept it, you find Maka attractive."

"You guys are nuts she's totally not my type." Soul tells them. "I'd never find some flat chested girl with fat ankles hot."

"Yeah except she's not that flat chested anymore..." Kid reminds him.

"And her ankles were never really fat were they?" Black Star adds.

Soul started to sweat and he looked back over the balcony. They were right...Maka had developed a bit more since he'd known her. Her breasts were nowhere near the size of Blair's but...they were slightly bigger than they used to be. Enough to make him notice anyway. He let his eyes wander down her figure. His face turned red when he realized she had curves. When did that happen!? But nevertheless, the most shocking part of all of this was how it was affecting him.

"Wow..." Soul says.

"Uh Soul..." Black Star says and pokes his arm.

"What is it?" Soul asks.

"Soul, you uh...have a uh..." Kid points down to his pants.

Soul looked down and his eyes widened. He had a boner! His face turned red and he dashed off to the bathroom.

"Things certainly are changing around here." Kid notes and looks in the direction Soul just ran off in.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Please comment if you want me to continue!


	2. Soul’s Thoughts

"Whoa what's going on up there?" Liz asks and looks up at the balcony from down where she and the girls were.

"What's going on Liz?" Tsubaki asks.

"I don't know." Liz answers. "The boys are all up there looking in our direction and then Soul started freaking out and ran off for some reason." Maka perked up and looked at Liz.

"Soul freaked out?" She asks in disbelief.

"Yeah. It's hard to see from this far away but I can tell the boys apart by their hair." Liz says.

"The guy with the white hair was the one that freaked out and ran away."

"Then that's definitely Soul." Patty says and takes a big bite of her sandwich.

"I wonder what's wrong with him..." Maka says nervously. "It's not like him to freak out." She thinks for a moment then stands up. "Maybe I should go and try to find him. If I don't come back before lunch is over do you girls mind bringing my stuff to class?" She asks.

"Of course Maka!" Tsubaki says. "What are friends for?"

The two smiled at each other and then Maka left. After she left the three girls all blushed as they looked at each other and giggled.

"How long do we have to wait for the two of them to realize they're in love?" Patty asks.

"Well, if our plan for Maka's surprise party goes through without a hitch, then hopefully very soon." Liz answers her sister and looks in Maka's direction.

Soul had run into the bathroom and went inside a stall, locked the door and breathed heavily. He couldn't believe what had just happened. He had gotten a boner...for Maka! He sat down on the toilet, making sure the seat was down before sitting, and held his head in his hands and ran them through his hair.

'How the hell did this happen!?' He exclaims in his mind. 'I mean I've never thought that Maka was ugly or anything. I've always thought she looked averagely pretty but I've never been attracted to her like that! I mean she's just not my type. She's super annoying and flat chested and yet...for some reason I can't seem to stop myself from thinking about how pretty she is.' He thinks to himself and sighs.

He thought about last night, how cute she looked eating ice cream. Her pig tails resting on her shoulder, those emerald eyes shining at him. She was always so kind, and compassionate to him. Even when he was down on himself. She gave him the confidence to keep striving for excellence. It's because of her he became a Death Scythe. He couldn't have done that with anyone else. There was no one else in the world he trusted more than Maka. That's what made them such great partners. Despite how different they are, they could always come together to fight and their souls paired well. It's almost like they were a perfect match...He knew they were. But he's never thought about Maka in a romantic way before. Was that what he was doing now? He quickly shook the thought from his head.

He let out a sigh of relief when he looked down and saw that he had gone flaccid. Now he could leave and pretend that none of this ever happened. But what he didn't expect was to find his meister waiting outside the door of the boys bathroom.

"Hey Soul!" She says cheerily and Soul jumps, caught off guard by her sudden appearance.

"M-maka." He stutters. "W-what are you doing here?" He asks. "I thought you were having lunch with the girls?"

"I was but then Liz said she saw you run off after freaking out about something so I came to find you." Maka explains. Soul blushed.

"I wasn't freaking out about anything." He grumbles and turns away from her, his nose up in the air. "She was just messing with you Maka. How could she even recognize us from way down there anyhow?" Soul questions.

Maka just laughs and Soul's annoyed demeanor changes. There was that weird warm feeling in his chest again. He felt himself blushing as Maka stood closer to him. Why was he feeling like this?

"Soul. Come on." Maka says. "You know I can tell you're lying." He growls and she giggles again.

"Fine. You want the truth?" He asks. She nods.

"Maka. I got a boner looking at you." He says casually. "You're really sexy to me now for some reason and I just couldn't help it when I saw you I-"

"MAKA-CHOP!" She yells and Soul looks up and screams as a book comes slamming down on his face.

And that's why he would not be telling Maka the truth about why he freaked out and ran into the bathroom. Even after everything they've faced together, the one attack he feared over all others was the Maka-chop. So he thought up an effective lie.

"Come on Soul..." She coaxes and giggles, poking his cheek. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Alright." He sighs. "Kid told me that some girls were stalking me and he overheard them talking about having seen me changing in the nurse's office one time and that they had pictures." He mumbles but Maka was standing close enough to him that she heard everything.

"Aw Soul. I'm so sorry to hear that." Maka says and hugs him.

Soul blushed and smiled. He hugged her back and held her close, lightly resting his face on Maka's head.

"It's fine. Even though it's kind of creepy and totally uncool I sort of prepared myself for something like that happening." Soul explains.

"Why?" Maka asks.

"Because I'm the last Death Scythe. I'm super popular now. Everyone wants a piece of me. Every piece of me..." Soul says.

"That doesn't mean you don't have a right to some privacy Soul." Maka says and smiles at him. "Want me to go tell a teacher? I'm sure they'll find those girls and-"

"Don't worry about any of that Maka it's not worth it. Screw those chicks. In fact..." Soul looks at her, biting his lip and thinks for a minute. "Screw everyone in this school. How about you and me ditch today?"

"Ditch school?" Maka asks. "But that's breaking rules. I couldn't. I won't-"

"Maka." Soul says sternly. "Please. For me. I need to get away from here for awhile."

Maka looks into his eyes and feels a warmth spread in her chest. Soul gently rests his forehead against hers and her breath hitches. She knew that there were other people watching them right now and whispering gossip. The thought made her blush and pull away from her weapon. When he realized why she pulled away he blushed too.

Neither one of them was oblivious to the rumors. They've all heard the gossip about the two of them secretly dating. It was embarrassing to the two of them. They weren't in love. They were just very close that's all. That didn't mean they had to be in love. They were partners and they did everything together. That's why Soul knew there was no way he was leaving this school without Maka at his side.

"Like I said." Soul whispers. "Fuck them." He referred to the whispering students and Maka bit her lip. "Have a little rebellious fun with me." Maka shakes her head no. "Come on Maka." He coaxes. "Doing rebellious activities will be good for strengthening our resonance. We'll go wherever you want. We can even..." He sighs and she arches an eyebrow. "Stop at the bookstore."

Once she heard that she knew how badly Soul really wanted to get out of here. He really needed to do this and that meant that she should do it with them.

"Well if it strengthens our bond...then we should definitely do it. I'm sure the teachers would understand for that reason!" Maka says and Soul smiles and scoops her up in his arms and hugs her tight.

She squeals happily and smiles at him. Emerald eyes meeting ruby ones. Both of them looking at each other like they had never seen something so beautiful before their entire lives. Little did they know that the other person was thinking the same thing.

"Maka!" An annoying red haired man called out to her.

The girl groaned and buried her face in Soul's shirt. Soul turned and saw Spirit running towards them. He sensed that Maka didn't want to see Spirit right now so he held onto her tighter and held her a bit more protectively.

"Maka! Maka! Oh Maka!" Spirit coaxes as he runs up to his daughter. "How's my baby girl doing today?"

"I'm fine dad." She answers plainly. "I'll do better once you're far away from me."

Spirit poured and then looked at Soul who was holding his daughter a bit closer to him that he would like. He frowned at the weapon. He too had heard the rumors and laughed when he heard them. There was no way his precious little Maka would ever date someone like Soul. He was so unlike her. However, he and Maka's mother were very different as well and they ended up marrying. So as of late he had been entertaining the idea that Soul and Maka could be in love.

"Maybe I should stay a bit closer." Spirit says and invades Soul and Maka's personal space, looming over them. "With all the rumors going around about you doing things with my daughter-"

"You actually believe that trash!?" Soul exclaims and Spirit looks shocked.

Soul stood in front of Maka, pushing her behind him protectively.

"If you actually cared about us you would know that Maka and I are just friends, nothing more nothing less." Soul explains. "But she's my meister too and that means I'm going to protect her no matter what."

"Soul..." Maka says softly, her heart racing and a slight blush forming on her cheeks.

"She said she doesn't want to be around you right now. So you should be a good father and respect her wishes and leave her alone!" Soul argues.

Spirit straightens his jacket and frowns at Soul.

"Fine then." Spirit says. "But if I ever get any suspicion that you're doing unspeakable things with my Maka I'll kill you myself!"

"I'd like to see you try." Soul retorts and Spirit huffs and starts to walk past them.

"I hope for your sake you won't have to." He says and leaves. "I'm going to be your sub today by the way!"

"Let's get out of here now!" Maka urges after her father disappears down the hall.

Soul snickers and runs after his meister after the bell rings and he and Maka run down the steps of the DWMA towards his motorcycle. Soul swings his leg over the side and starts it as Maka climbs on behind him. Her arms wrap around his waist and she rests her head on his shoulder and Soul found himself blushing slightly.

'Damn I've been blushing a lot lately.' Soul thinks to himself. 'I'd better stop doing that. Maka's gonna get suspicious if I keep up like this. Cool guys don't let women know how much of an affect they have on them.'

He revved up the engine and the bike roared to life and the two of them rode off away from the school.

"Did you seriously have to get so many books?" Soul whines as he carries a huge stack of books up the stairs to their apartment. "I mean why do you need this many. You could look up half of this information online. It would take up a lot less space."

"Yeah but I can't Maka-chop you with a computer. It would break the computer!" Maka explains.

"And my head!" Soul barks back at her. "Maybe I should just toss all these books out? Then you'll never be able to Maka-chop me ever again!"

"Or I'll just use the book I've got right here..." She says in a scary calm tone.

Soul watches in horror as Maka raises the thickest book he's ever seen into the air.

"No no no!" He begs. "I'm sorry Maka! Really! I swear! I truly am! Please don't Maka-chop me! Anything but that!" She laughs.

"Don't worry Soul. This one's too good to be wasted on your empty head." Maka says and hugs it. He lets out a sigh of relief then frowns.

"Hey wait a minute-" He's about to argue.

Then Maka's laugh made all the anger drain right out of him. He stood there and watched her laugh as the light from the setting sun shone through the window and lit up her face as she laughed.

'Dammit.' Soul thinks to himself. 'She's not pretty. She's not even beautiful. She's fucking gorgeous.'

He blushed and readjusted the stack of books in his arms and he and Maka continued their journey upstairs. Little did he know that his meister was blushing and desperately hoping that he didn't notice.

 **A/N:** I hope you enjoyed! Please comment if you would like another part!


	3. Maka’s Secret

The change in how Maka thought about Soul happened a few nights ago. Soul knew that her birthday was coming up and that meant that Spirit had been a bit more intrusive on Maka's life than he normally was. The other day at school he was begging Maka to have dinner with him so he could talk about plans for her birthday and look at her old baby pictures, reminiscing in how she used to be when she was a little girl and just father daughter stuff in general. Maka of course shut him down but Soul had a different opinion on the matter.

"I think you should hang out with him." Soul told her that day at school.

"Why?" Maka asked. "You know I don't like my dad. He'll probably just ignore me again and go flirt with girls or something like he always does."

"Maybe he'll be different this time." Soul said. "I mean it is your birthday. Even though he doesn't follow through on a lot of things he always comes through on that right?"

"Yeah." Maka said and smiled a bit.

"You might not like him that much but he is your family." Soul told her. "If he's reaching out to you then maybe you should give him a chance. Try to repair your relationship with him. You could end up liking him, you never know." Maka looked disgusted at the last part.

"Ew! He's still a weird pervert Soul!" Maka reminded her weapon. "I don't think I'm going to like him anytime soon but...I guess it would be nice to be on better terms with him. I'll hang out with him tonight. Thanks for the advice Soul!"

So that night Soul was alone, watching TV since he had nothing better to do. It was a pretty calm and relaxing night. But it didn't stay that way. Because about half an hour after Maka left, she came back, disappointment evident on her face. Soul turned off the TV and came over to her.

"Hey what happened?" He asked. "I thought you and your dad would be hanging out for longer?"

"When I got to the restaurant we were supposed to meet at I found him there, with some random sexy woman that he was flirting with who took my seat." Maka explained, her voice wavering a bit. "I was going to just walk in there and hopefully my dad would have told her to leave once he saw me but then I saw the waiter bring them a glass of wine. He gave away my reservation to her."

Soul's fists clenched and he felt anger brewing within him. But he didn't let it show. There was no need. Her dad did stuff like this all the time. Maka was strong. She was used to this kind of disappointment. He knew it didn't bother her that much so he didn't feel the need to show how angry he was. He was about to tell her he was sorry when all of a sudden she burst into tears and covered her face in her hands and started to cry.

Soul's eyes widened in shock and without even thinking he immediately wrapped his arms around Maka and pulled her into his chest, holding her close. As he held her in his arms he gently stroked her back and shushed her gently, making sure she knew he was there and she was safe in his arms. He didn't even question why, he just chalked it up to his protective instincts as a weapon who saw his meister in distress.

But Maka was confused. She knew Soul was protective over her when facing an enemy in battle but never because she was upset emotionally. She placed her hands on his chest and sniffled, her tears soaking the orange fabric of his t-shirt. Soul's arm was wrapped around her waist and his other hand was placed gently on the back of her head, stroking her hair. Maka was thoroughly shocked. He had never held her like this before. Was this because she was crying? Normally he just gave her a speech about how strong she was and how little things that upset her didn't matter. But now he wasn't saying anything. He was just comforting her. She looked up at him and decided she should explain herself.

"I know I should be used to this by now." She said and sniffed. "But it's just so shocking to me that he would jilt me on hanging out with me so close to my birthday. No matter what he always made time for that." She sniffled again and more tears flowed down her cheeks.

"That good for nothing bastard." Soul grumbled and squeezed her a bit tighter, resting his head on top of hers. "If you want to go fight him right now we can go do that you know." He told her. "I don't care if Lord Death gets mad at us. That perverted jerk deserves to taste the metal of my blade after what he did to you!" Soul declared and pulled back to look into Maka's eyes.

When he saw how red and puffy they were, Maka saw his angered expression soften a bit to one of concern, but there was still a fire burning in his crimson eyes. Maka had no idea what was about to come next.

"I don't mind being punished Maka." He told her and smiled. "If you want to go fight your dad with me and Lord Death punishes us both because of it I'll demand that he let me take yours to protect your perfect record. I'll even go fight him myself so that way there's no risk of you getting in trouble. If it's for you it'll be worth it. But I can't deal with him not facing any repercussions for this. He gave your birthday dinner away to some random chick and made you cry, no one is going to do that to you and get away with it." He transformed his arm into a blade. "So just say the word and I'll go tear him apart." He growled.

Maka had no idea what to say. She wasn't thinking straight. Something was wrong. Something was different...For the first time ever, a guy wanted to stand up for her. No one had ever done that before. She was the strongest meister in the DWMA and at the top of the class. Everyone knew she could handle herself and no one ever felt the need to step in and stand up for her if she was being bullied or upset. But here was a boy willing to go beat up her father just because he made her cry. If this was any other boy other than Soul she would accuse them of being sexist for thinking she can't defend herself but this wasn't just any boy, this was her weapon! The boy she had a strong bond with and who always pushed her to be stronger and overcome her challenges was willing to go and fight for her honor instead of telling her to go and do it herself. And not only that but he offered to let her come too, knowing that she'd want to let out her own anger and he was more than willing to let her use him to do it. But she wasn't angry anymore. In fact, she felt the exact opposite of hatred.

"Soul..." She said softly and teared up and threw her arms around her weapon and hugged him tight. "I don't want to fight him. I just want to stay here with you tonight. Is that okay?" He de-transformed his arm and wrapped it around her and hugged her back.

"Of course." He said softly. "I'll do whatever you want."

"Will you play me a song on the piano?" She asked softly.

"For you, definitely." He answered and Maka's eyes widened and she felt a strange warmth spread through her chest.

She reminisced on that night as she brushed her hair, thinking about how safe and warm she felt in his arms, and how much he cared for her. She closed her eyes and thought about the song he played for her on his fold out keyboard. She was never a romantic person but the song he played for her just sounded so sweet and full of love she couldn't help but look at him all doey eyed as he played for her. And that was when she knew, she was falling in love with her partner. She looked in her closet and wondered what dress she should wear. Soul told her he was going to take her out somewhere nice for her birthday tonight, even though she told him he didn't have to he insisted, unknowingly tugging at her heart strings. She decided on a dark purple one that was tight around her waist and then flowed down to her knees. It complemented her skin tone. And she decided to wear a necklace with a silver chain and emerald necklace to compliment her eyes. She wore her hair down with part of it tied back behind her head.

"Hey Maka are you ready?" Soul calls out to her.

"Yeah I'm on my way out." Maka answers and walks over to the door.

When she walked out into the living room she blushed when she saw Soul. He wore dark jeans and sneakers, and a crisp white button down shirt that fit him well, showing the muscles on his arms that he'd developed over the years. He brushed his bangs out of his face a bit and stared at her. She looked beautiful, absolutely breathtaking. How had he never seen this before? He smiled at her and couldn't help but say:

"You look beautiful." He says and then his face turns redder and Maka giggles.

"Thank you Soul." She says and walks over to him. "You don't look too bad yourself."

"Thanks." He says softly.

"So where are you taking me tonight?" Maka asks.

"Somewhere special." Soul says and gently takes her hand. His heart skips a beat when she squeezes it.

"You're not going to tell me where?" She asks.

"It's a surprise." He says and gently pulls her to the door.

They make their way outside and he swings his leg over his bike and sits on it, patting the seat for Maka to join him. She smiles and goes over to sit behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He revs up the engine and then rides off down the street.

Maka never told him how much she loved it when they rode on his bike together. It was exhilarating, how fast they could go together, and how the warmth of his body rivaled the wind of the air that rushed by them, making her press onto him more. Soul relaxed into Maka's touch and basked in her surrounding warmth as they drove down the road. He too enjoyed these quiet moments on his bike with Maka. There was something just so peaceful about it. Everything else was moving by them so quickly but she was the one thing that moved just as fast with him. His constant throughout all the chaos he had been through in his life. She was the one thing he could always count on. And he was hers. They had been partners for years now. It's still hard to believe he's been living with her for so long. Argued with her for years. She was the most annoying person he'd ever met and yet...He found her absolutely incredible. She was undoubtedly the best thing that ever happened to him. Maka felt the same way about him. Although she hated men because of her father and resented Soul for mocking her appearance for years, Soul was the one man she didn't hate. He was so cool and now she was starting to see how attractive he was. Now she knew what all those thirsty girls were talking about in the love letters they wrote about him.

But she knew he would never like her back. She wasn't pretty enough or cool enough for him. She was just some flat chested nerd and he probably wanted a bustier girl who was more fun to hang out with. And that's why she had to keep her true feelings for him a secret. If he knew what she really thought about him he would be creeped out and leave her for someone else and the thought of that happening killed Maka inside. They make it to the woods by the DWMA and Maka starts to get suspicious as Soul slows down his bike and then eventually stops it.

"We're here." Soul says simply and helps Maka off of his bike.

"We're out in the middle of the woods." Maka tells him. "What are we doing out here?"

"You'll see." Soul says and leads Maka over to the stone wall by the Academy.

Maka blushed as Soul covered her eyes with his hands.

"Soul? Seriously what's going on?" She laughs and Soul smiles at her.

"Relax. You trust me don't you?" He asks and Maka smiles.

"Of course I do. I trust you more than anyone else Soul Eater." She says honestly and Soul blushed and his heart raced from hearing her say that.

He smirked and walked her over to the wall.

"Alright then. Open your eyes Maka." Soul instructs and Maka gasps as she sees a beautiful party set up just below the wall on the lawn of the DWMA.

All of she and Soul's friends were down there, dressed up as nice as they were. They all looked up at Maka and Soul and waved hi. Then in unison they all shouted:

"Surprise! Happy Birthday Maka!"

Maka teared up and started to cry in happiness.

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading! If you want me to continue please comment and let me know! Also when you do comment, mention something specific about the story. Just saying "please update" lets me know that you want me to continue and that's great but I'd appreciate it if you talked about what you liked or didn't like in the story a lot more! And it'll help me see what kind of things you guys would want more of in the story!


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